London Card Cheat Convicted

A Romanian poker player has been found guilty of marking cards in some of the country's biggest cash games.

After being arrested back in 2014, Mihai Lacatos recently pleaded guilty to cheating in casinos across the UK and winning almost £44,000 in the process.

The 61-year-old was first spotted by security staff at the Playboy Club in Mayfair, London, and his image was then given to the Met and subsequently distributed to casinos across the country.

The card marker was soon arrested, but after being bailed to return in May he was later picked up trying to leave the country under a fake passport. Following his second arrest, police were able to uncover the technique he used to mark the cards and dupe unsuspecting players out of thousands.

Using sleight of hand, Lacatos would put a slight bend in the cards so he could track them later in the game. On November 20, 2014, the Romanian was finally charged and at the end of February he pleaded guilty to 18 charges of deception and cheating stretching back to 2008.

According to reports, the man cheated at a range of card games, including three card and regular poker, in some of London's biggest casinos, including: Genting Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair, Maxim's Casino and Rank Casino in Victoria.

Tuesday is the deadline for all working Americans to have submitted their income tax returns to the federal government and Juicy Stakes and Intertops Poker are set to mark this annual occasion by holding a special freeroll competition featuring a $1,000 top prize.

“We run a lot of higher stakes tournaments for our more hard-core players,” said Intertops’ poker manager. “But since our network is generally pretty soft, we created this series to give less competitive players a shot at winning.”